In the Nevada Desert, the U.S. Military Prepares for a New Kind of Warfare

Aug. 9, 2016

Media Outlet: the Washington Post

Multi-domain warfare was incorporated at Red Flag recently to an extent the U.S. military has never done before, Red Flag participants said. The exercise, established in the 1970s after thousands of U.S. aircraft were shot down over Vietnam, has long been considered one of the U.S. military’s premier ways to train pilots for air-to-air combat. This time, however, it integrated space and cyber missions throughout the three-week exercise.

Peter Singer, an author and analyst with the New America Foundation, said the U.S. military is in a position where it must develop doctrine for new kinds of operations, including cyber and space warfare. His 2015 book with August Cole, “Ghost Fleet,” is a work of fiction, but its exploration of how China and Russia could cripple the U.S. military through cyber and space attacks has been studied in the military over the past year.

Singer cited in an interview a comparison to the World War II Battle of the Kasserine Pass, in which inexperienced U.S. forces in Tunisia were badly battered by German forces who were better prepared to use tanks and other weapons at their disposal.

“It’s not who has the tech, it’s who has the best doctrine for bringing it all together,” Singer said of cyberwarfare. “We’ve had this capability; we just haven’t had to use it and exercise it much.”